USDA opens 24 million acres of Conservation Reserve land to cattle grazing, aims to ease grain prices

The US Department of Agriculture announced that it would open 24 million acres of the Conservation Reserve Program to cattle grazing. The announcement is intended to take pressure off the price of grains by reducing feed demand from livestock companies, but analysts said that it was possible that ranchers would respond to the announcement by increasing herd size.

Free Subscription to the Daily Biofuels Digest e-newsletter

Related Stories

Pressure mounts to release 7 million acres from Conservation Reserve for grain production as price, shortage fears grow

The American Bakers Association joined a chorus of organizations calling for release of seven million acres of land from the US Conservation Reserve Program, which it said could be accomplished "witho...

Farmers take lands back from Conservation reserve; government compensation “not even comparable” to market revenues

In North Dakota, farmers are taking lands back from the Conservation Reserve Program to put them back into production. "Last fall," according to the New York Times, "they took back as many acres as ar...

USDA projects decrease in crop planting of 8 million acres in 2009 despite elevated prices

In Illinois, experts briefing the press at the Chicago Board of trade said that soybean exports will reach record levels in 2009 based on 76 million planted acres of soybeans, compared to 85 million a...

Iowa State professor says high corn prices the result of wheat prices, not the other way around

In Iowa, a professor at Iowa State said that high corn prices are slowing down the pace of ethanol production, but would give the ethanol infrastructure development time to catch up. Professor Robe...

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Ottawa’s push to use high-level ethanol fuel in cars is doing little or nothing to cut Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions nor will it.”

Canada.com: "Ottawa's push to use high-level ethanol fuel in cars is doing little or nothing to cut Canada's greenhouse gas emissions nor will it, says a government briefing note prepared for  Natura...

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “If the land that went into urban “sprawl” had been used for biofuel, 1/2 of all US passenger vehicles could now be running on it.”

The Associated Press: "Cambridge Energy Research Associates said Tuesday that oil consumption started to slump four years ago as consumers bought more efficient vehicles and countries expanded their u...